This invention relates to a coin door assembly applied to a pinball machine (pin table) or an upright-type coin operated gaming machine.
Conventionally, such a coin door assembly is fixed in an opening of a front surface of the pinball machine of the upright-type coin operated gaming machine. As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional coin door assembly comprises a coin slot 2 and a coin return opening 3 formed on a service door panel 1. The service door panel 1 has a cancel button (not shown), a coin thrown or discharge chute 4, a coin acceptance chute 5 and a micro-switch for acceptance signals (not shown). A service door frame 6 is fixed to the periphery of the opening of the front surface. The service door flame 6 holds the service door panel 1 hinged thereto. In addition, a drop-type coin selector 7 is disposed between the coin thrown chute 1 and the coin acceptance chute 5.
In the coin door assembly as described above, the coin selector 7 is removably attached to the service door panel 1 in order to make it possible to replace and repair the coin selector 7. As shown in the figure, selector holding pieces 8 are typically disposed on the coin thrown chute 4 and the coin acceptance chute 5 for holding the coin selector 7. These holding pieces 8 are forced to an inner flange 9 of the coin selector 7. The selector holding pieces 8 are secured to the coin selector 7 through fixing screws 10. By means of tightening the fixing screws 10, the coin selector 7 is forced to the panel surface of the service door panel 1. Thus, the coin selector 7 is fixedly interposed between the coin thrown chute 4 and the coin acceptance chute 5.
The coin door assembly may have holding ribs and/or holding groove to position the coin selector 7 or to hold it from the outside on the panel surface or the like. Such drop-type coin selector is manufactured in some different manufacturers. The outer dimension of each coin selector is not exactly equal though approximately equal depending on the manufacturer, or even made by the same manufacturer. Thus, it is difficult to correctly dispose the coin selector 7 onto the coin door assembly 1. Such differences in dimension may result in the stress to the coin selector when it is disposed onto the coin door assembly 1. The coin selector 7 may be deformed due to the stress causing an inadequate operation thereof. Even the problem may be due to the fact that the coin selector 7 cannot be disposed. It is much more true in an electronic selector which has frequently been used in recent years. Such electronic selector is relatively large in dimension, i.e., the thickness and the width. Thus, another problem has occurred that it is impossible to correctly fix the coin selector depending only on the outer configuration thereof.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a coin door assembly wherein the coin selector can be disposed without affected by the dimension thereof.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a coin door assembly wherein the coin selector can be readily disposed and removed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a coin door assembly having a coin selector held thereon substantially free of problem.
It is further object of the present invention to provide a service door panel of a coin door assembly wherein a conventional coin selector can be fixed by using a plurality of fixing pin projected from a surface thereof.